Your Photos & Videos Never Leave Your Device
ThreadRecap processes WhatsApp exports locally and never uploads photos or videos. Only chat text and voice notes are sent for analysis.
When you export a WhatsApp chat with media, the zip can contain photos, videos, and voice notes. Most people assume everything gets uploaded.
ThreadRecap does not work that way.
Photos and videos never leave your device. We do not upload them. We do not process them. They are ignored.
We only send what is required to produce a useful recap. You can read more in our privacy policy. Here is what gets uploaded:
- Chat text from the export.
- Voice notes (audio) if you choose to include media and want transcription.
Everything else stays local.
What is inside a WhatsApp export zip?
A typical export looks like:
- A chat transcript file (often `_chat.txt` or `WhatsApp Chat - ... .txt`).
- Media files (photos, videos, documents).
- Voice notes (commonly `.opus`, sometimes `.m4a`).
ThreadRecap reads the zip locally in your browser, extracts the chat text, identifies voice note files, and ignores photos and videos.
What ThreadRecap uploads (and why)
ThreadRecap uploads only:
1) Chat text
Because summaries, decisions, and action items come from the conversation timeline.
2) Voice notes (audio) only
Because voice notes often contain the most important information, and transcription requires sending audio to a speech-to-text model.
If there are no voice notes, no audio is uploaded.
What ThreadRecap never uploads
ThreadRecap does not upload:
- Photos.